Stuck in the Moment, by Jay Tryfanstone (R)

[lastrega.livejournal.com]

Fandom: HIGHLANDER
Pairing: Duncan/Methos
Author on LJ: tryfanstone
Author Website: Playing Games in the Dark

Why this must be read: Meta-fic! Beautiful, whimsical meta-fic! Jay's writing is always highly original, and it was hard to find just one to rec, but this one is my favourite of all her work. It's a wonderful experience to read the writing of someone who handles words and ideas as confidently and well as she does. It's a must-read for anyone who wants to read outside the usual fanfiction box.



You might be wondering at this point when we'll start and just where we'll finish. I will tell you right away that we have started: that we started in front of a computer and with our back to the fire, like all the best stories start, a fire redolent with applewood and scented with pinecones, and we will finish in three hours and four pages, when the fire is embers and I have friends waiting for me. And that when the fireworks are over the characters will be at peace, that Duncan will be lying awake watching the stars wheel above his window, meditating on constancy, and that Methos will be sleeping with his not inconsiderable nose turned into the warmth of Duncan's armpit, content in the moment, and that Joe will be writing up his private watcher records with a forgotten grin on his face. Right at this moment, though, you see Joe and Duncan sitting opposite each other with three glasses, a bottle of Highland Park and a pack of cards between them. You see Methos at the bar, a bit blurred, because Methos is adept at disguising exactly what he's doing and at this moment the old man is studying the way reflections behave in the polished metal of an ice bucket whilst extracting a single cube for his glass of whiskey. Why is he doing this? He is doing this because, in the long shadows of a long winter afternoon, this ill-assorted but sympathetic threesome is playing poker.

Stuck in the Moment